Rains, Snow Damage China’s Rapeseed, Cotton Crops

May 19 (Bloomberg) -- China’s rapeseed and cotton crops
have been damaged by heavy rain and snow, threatening to reduce
output in the world’s largest consumer of both commodities.

Rapeseed production this year may fall to less than 10
million metric tons to the lowest level since 2007, Li Qiang,
managing director at Shanghai JC Intelligence Co., said today
in an interview. Output will probably be the lowest since 2007,
when China produced 8.6 million tons, he added. Output was 11
million tons last year, he said.

Heavy snow in western Gansu province this week destroyed
local crops and killed livestock, Chinanews.com said today,
citing the local government. Snowfalls also hurt cotton crops
in Xinjiang province and caused replanting in the biggest
producing state, the China Cotton Association said this week.

“We are off to a pretty bad start to the spring,” Mao
Shuchun, cotton researcher at the Chinese Academy of
Agricultural Sciences, said in a telephone interview from
central Henan province today.

The snowstorm in Gansu province was the latest in a string
of weather events that have hurt crops this year, driving up
prices of corn, sugar, cotton and vegetables. Torrential rain
in 10 provinces in southern China will also cut rapeseed output,
industry watcher cnyouzhi.com said this week.

‘Not Optimistic’

The outlook for cotton planting in China this year is
“not optimistic” after farmers delayed sowing because of
adverse weather, Gao Fang, executive vice president of the
China Cotton Association, said May 7.

China faces a cotton shortage of about 310,000 metric tons
before new domestic supplies come onto the market after India
halted exports and demand climbed, the State-owned Assets
Supervision and Administration Commission said on April 27.

Still, damage to cotton crops isn’t clear yet and there’s
no estimate on how much production will decline, the Chinese
Academy’s Mao said. China may struggle to repeat bumper
harvests of recent years as adverse weather affects crops and
planting, Fang Yan, deputy director of the Rural Economy
Department at the National Development and Reform Commission,
said May 8.

The worst drought in more than 50 years in the southwest of
the country reduced sugar production, while persistent low
temperatures in the north delayed spring planting of corn and
soybeans.